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On this day: July 25

2010: Wikileaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history. The leak revealed information on the deaths of civilians, increased Taliban attacks and involvement by Pakistan and Iran in the insurgency.

2000: Texas Gov. George W. Bush selects Dick Cheney to be his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket.

1997: Ben Hogan, considered one of the greatest players in the history of golf, dies at age 84 in Fort Worth, Texas. His nine career professional major championships tie him for fourth all-time, trailing only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen. He's pictured here during his homecoming parade in New York City after his victory at the 1953 British Open.

1995: Country music singer-songwriter and musician Charlie Rich, best known for his pair of 1973 hits "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl," dies in his sleep from a pulmonary embolism at age 62 in Hammond, Louisiana.

1992: The 25th Olympic Summer games open in Barcelona, Spain.

1990: Controversy arises after comedian Roseanne Barr sings an off-key version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a San Diego Padres game and follows it by spitting and grabbing her crotch. Barr's actions offended many, including President George H.W. Bush, who called her rendition "disgraceful."

1986: Stage and film director Vincente Minnelli, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as "Meet Me in St. Louis," "The Band Wagon," "An American in Paris" and "Gigi," dies of emphysema and pneumonia at age 83 in Beverly Hills, California. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951 and they were the parents of Liza Minnelli. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for "Gigi" and was also nominated for "An American in Paris."

1985: While in Paris for treatment, actor Rock Hudson issues a press release announcing that he is dying of AIDS. Less than three months later he would become the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness.

1984: Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space, carrying out more than three hours of experiments outside the orbiting space station Salyut Seven.

1984: Rhythm and blues singer-songwriter Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, dies of heart attack at the age of 57 in Los Angeles, California. She was the first to record the song "Hound Dog" in 1952, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts and sold almost two million copies, but was overshadowed by Elvis Presley's version three years later. She wrote "Ball 'n' Chain," which later became a hit for Janis Joplin, "They Call Me Big Mama" and 20 other blues songs, and is an inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame.

1978: Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby," is born in Oldham, England. Despite the nickname, the in vitro fertilization that led to Brown's conception actually took place in a petri dish.

1976: The Viking 1 orbiter takes the famous "Face on Mars" photo.

1970: Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Lookin' Out My Back Door" is released. The song, with "Long as I Can See the Light" as the flip-side, eventually climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.

1969: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young perform together for the first time, at Fillmore East in New York City.

1969: During a press conference in Guam, President Richard Nixon puts forth the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense, but that the U.S. would aid in defense as requested. This is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.

1967: Actor Matt LeBlanc, best known for playing Joey Tribbiani on the sitcom "Friends" and for playing a fictional version of himself in the Showtime series "Episodes," is born in Newton, Massachusetts.

1966: The Supremes release "You Can't Hurry Love." The song would go on to top the United States Billboard pop singles chart.

1966: Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones makes his final public concert performance with the band. Due to Jones' legal problems, mood swings and substance abuse, he was asked to leave the band in June 1969 and would be found dead in his swimming pool on July 3, 1969.

1965: Bob Dylan goes electric as he plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music. Met with a mix of cheering and booing, he left the stage after only three songs.

1959: The SR-N1, the world's first practical hovercraft, crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over two hours.

1956: The Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria, carrying 1,134 passengers and 572 crew, collides with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the New England coast, killing 46 on the Andrea Doria and five on the Stockholm. The larger Andrea Doria would capsize and sink the following morning.

1954: Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton, a nine-time Pro Bowler who once held the NFL records for most career rushing yards, touchdowns, carries, yards from scrimmage, all-purpose yards, and many other categories, is born in Columbia, Mississippi. The Chicago Bears great, seen here in 1977, won two NFL Most Valuable Player Awards and a championship in Super Bowl XX during his 12-year career. He died from cholangiocarcinoma at age 45 on Nov. 1, 1999, after having struggled with the rare liver disease primary sclerosing cholangitis for several months.

1946: The United States detonates an atomic bomb underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll as part of a series of nuclear weapon tests known as Operation Crossroads.

1943: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

1941: Emmett Till is born in Chicago, Illinois. His name would become known 14 years later when he was murdered on Aug. 28, 1955, while visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta region after reportedly flirting with a white woman. The woman's husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam were eventually acquitted of Till's kidnapping and murder, but months later, protected against double jeopardy, they admitted to killing him in a magazine interview. Till's murder is noted as a pivotal event motivating the Civil Rights Movement in America.

1923: Actress Estelle Getty, best known for playing Sophia Petrillo on the sitcom "The Golden Girls," is born Estelle Scher in New York City.

1915: Royal Flying Corps Capt. Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British military aviator, and third overall, to earn the Victoria Cross, for defeating three German two-seat observation aircraft in one day, over the Western Front during World War I.

1909: Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

1898: During the Spanish-American War, the United States invades Puerto Rico with a landing at Guánica. As an outcome of the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines and Guam, that were under Spanish sovereignty, to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris. Fifty-four years later, on the same day, Puerto Rico would officially be declared a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.

1894: Actor Walter Brennan (right), a three-time Oscar-winner for his roles in "Come and Get It," "Kentucky" and "The Westerner," and also known for his roles in other movies such as "Rio Bravo," "Red River" (as pictured here with John Wayne) and "Sergeant York," is born in Lynn, Massachusetts.

1871: Wilhelm Schneider of Davenport, Iowa, is granted the first carousel patent.

1866: The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the five-star rank of general of the Army. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was the first to be promoted to this rank.

1861: The United States Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the Civil War is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

1837: The first commercial use of an electric telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone between Euston and Camden Town in London.

1788: Wolfgang Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor.

1783: The American Revolutionary War's last action, the Siege of Cuddalore in present-day India, is ended by preliminary peace agreement.

A.D. 315: The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum at Rome to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

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